NELLIE MAE ROWE

For Nellie Mae Rowe, drawing was a form of worship. She said, “I try to draw because [God] is wonderful to me. I just have to keep drawing until he says, ‘Well done, Nellie, you have been faithful.’ Then I will know that I have finished my work.” In Peace, Rowe represented her own industrious hands, which seem to invoke a benediction for the blue animal just beyond.